I chose my father, Gustavo Perednik, as the subject of my project. I believe that by his coming to Israel and contributing in an important and essential matter such as teaching and educating how to present our country in troubled times as today, he is playing his part (and more) as an appreciative, Broad-hearted, smart and giving citizen. Thanks to him and his job, many Jews around the world are proud of their identity and know how to live with it, spread it, and present it to the word. Some of his students became religious and made aliya, which is an important aspect to be in touch with, too. I believe we have a lot to learn from my fathers' important projects and the devotion and hard work he puts into them.
I hope you learn from this project as much as I did.
Enjoy, Hadar Perednik.
Profile:
Gustavo Perednik was born in Argentina in 1956, the only son of a middle- class Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia one generation before.
His parents belonged to the Jewish club “Hako’ach” where Gustavo went every Sunday to play with friends and to basketball games or rowing.
During the week he attended an English elementary school (called “Buenos Aires English High School” –although it was only elementary) and afterwards a high school that belonged to the University of Buenos Aires, called “Carlos Pellegrini.” He was an excellent student in both of them, and had many friends, some of which are still in contact with him.
His mother tongue was Spanish, the language of Argentina, but he was used to hearing Yiddish spoken by his grandmothers and their friends (both his grandfathers had passed away long before Gustavo was born.)
At home, Israel was always cherished and admired. He thought of making aliya, since his boyhood. Gustavo’s relatives in Israel were the siblings of his maternal grandmother and their children; almost all of them lived in Ramat Ha’Sharon. When he visited Israel for the first time in 1974, he paid a visit to them, but afterwards the contact between them lessened.
He had visited Israel many times after that, and in 1982 he was selected to study in The Jerusalem Fellows program for Jewish educators, which was launched that year and gave him a full scholarship. During that program, in 1984, he met Ruth Kestenbaum through a common friend, and they married in 1985.
They lived in Argentina for five years, since Gustavo’s program obliged him to return to his community as an educator. In Buenos Aires, Ruth and Gustavo’s first three children were born.
Once the Perednik family came back to Israel in 1990, they lived for several years in Jerusalem until in the year 1999 they decided to buy a house in Efrat. They had visited the place some years before when they were invited by the Ben Ami family, but for a while, the decision to move to Efrat was put on hold, because the road to get there was difficult.
The Hebrew University offered him the job of Director of the Four-Year Preparatory Program (Mechinah) and two years later he was offered to head the Machon Le’Madrichei Chul at Kiryat Moriyah, Jerusalem. While he was the head of the Machon, he continued lecturing at the Hebrew University for several years.
Gustavo always felt more at home in Israel than in any other country, including his native Argentina, although he likes visiting there when he travels to lecture.
He is a lecturer in many universities and Jewish communities abroad, therefore his job requires a lot of traveling. He works mainly with Jewish communities and organizations and meets many interesting people during his trips. By now, He must have given about 2,000 lectures about Israel and about the Jewish contribution to civilization, in one hundred towns of fifty countries.
He organizes many activities abroad; therefore his job requires a lot of creativity, including writing books on Jewish topics, which he enjoys very much.
Gustavo’s job demands a lot of thought, keeping updated about the Jewish world, reading a lot, and good organizational skills. Above all, it demands being a good educator who loves communicating with his students. Talking to Gustavo, I realized how essential his job is to our country. Gustavo gives so much time, effort and thought into how to present Israel to the world and how to improve the relationships between the two. Not once has he, through his job, proven an anti-Semitic wrong. For example, once, being interviewed on Argentinean radio, the interviewer asked him what rights Israel has to exist. Gustavo, calmly and precisely made her realize how none of the other 191 countries in the world had to prove their rights to exist, and how Israel is the only country in the world you can actually say for a fact that having been founded one hundred years earlier would have saved millions of Jews. This job isn't important only in the international aspect. Jews themselves can learn about their own history, the importance and greatness of their country, and their rights to be accepted by the world and accept themselves. Though the world sometimes deceives us, Israel is a strong and up standing country that has an influence and a place in the world, as much as any other country does and sometimes evens more. I believe that Gustavo's doing can help us and the world, see and understand that.
He feels his job is important for the Jews since he teaches about how to present the case of Israel in many frameworks. He is quite known in many Jewish communities and that makes his job easier.
Gustavo’s frequent trips don’t make his family life easier, but he tries to compensate his absence when with the time he spends with his wife and his children while he's in Israel.
He intends to be more in Israel in the years to come, since he has several books that could be finished while he is at home.
Gustavo hopes that the years to come will bring him the same happiness he has enjoyed so far, both with his family and with his professional activities.
Background research
The Jewish community in Argentina: Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, the largest numbers are in Buenos Aires alone, the city in which my father lived. Despite its size, the community is shrinking, due partly to the emigration of its younger population to other countries and to Israel in light of the economic crisis facing the country. Most Jews here are Ashkenazi and a smaller percentage, Sephardic. Throughout different periods in history, Argentina's Jews have enjoyed peaceful co-existence, but have also had turns facing fierce anti-semitism.
The Jewish community is active in all aspects of society - politics, religion, education, arts, media, film and music - and many of its members are prominent figures in these fields. There are dozens of educational institutions, social groups and sports clubs within the community. Most synagogues are traditional, with orthodox synagogues outnumbering conservative and reform ones.
In Buenos Aires, the heart of Jewish life can be found in "Once" (Onsay), site of one of its more prominent synagogues. "Once" is also home to Argentina's oldest synagogue. Another source of pride for the community is its Jewish cultural center, which features concerts, lectures and a high school.
As in other countries around the world, the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) train young community leaders to operate local organizations and manage the upkeep of the community at large. These agencies also provide aid to local business owners and synagogues when necessary. Other organizations within the community include AMIA, the Argentinean Kehila, DAIA, the representative political umbrella organization for the local Jewish community and the Vaad Hakehilot, Argentina's federation of small Jewish communities. In comparison to all this information, My father lived in a very Jewish though not at all religious community, in which he could learn and be proud of his being a Jew, but not much further. He lived in a very open community where not all where Jews, and likewise was his school.
From here we can see how the Jewish community is developing and evolving, and not the same at all places.
Literary connection
As subject of my literary connection I chose a song written by Ehud Manor after the death of his younger brother during a war over Israel.
אין לי ארץ אחרת גם אם אדמתי בוערת
רק מילה בעברית חודרת
אל עורקי אל נשמתי
בגוף כואב
בלב רעב
כאן הוא ביתי.
לא אשתוק כי ארצי
שינתה את פניה
לא אוותר לה אזכיר לה
ואשיר כאן באוזניה
עד שתפקח את עיניה.
there is no other country for me
even if my land is burning
only a word in hebrew penetraites
into my vains, into my soul.
with a hurting body
and a hungry heart
this is my home.
I won't be silent because my country
has changed it's face.
I won't give up on her, I will remind her
and sing into her ear
untill she opens her eyes.
This song speaks of Israel as of a sacred and life-giving worthy place. He mentions that only to a word spoken in Hebrew he can relate, and how even in hunger or heartache this is his home.
To the writer, Israel is valuable beyond just a country to live in or a place to grow up in. Israel is a value, a goal, a belief. Ehud Manor wrote this song after losing his brother for the country's safety. I felt the song was written with an aching, but whole heart.
I chose this song for a few reasons. Firstly, because of my personal connection to the song, that comes to expression in a disc I prepared for my Batmitzva in which I sang that song. Secondly, because I find it beautiful and inspiring to hear someone who's lost so much for the country, speak of Israel with such love and praise. My third reason for choosing this song is because I see it's direct connection to the subject of my project, my father. Gustavo gives so much of himself for Israel, for the Jews and for the progress of Israel's presentation in the world. Thank god, my father didn't have to lose a soul to see the importance of Israel, but he did put himself through a complete life change so he could live in Israel, and decided from then to devote his life for the country.
Creative connection
It took a while for me to decide that as my creative connection I will present my personal song.
Finally, I decided that presenting the song I recorded for my batmitzva would be appropriate and suitable due to the fact that I wrote my literary connection about that same song.
For my batmitzva I knew I wanted to record songs, because that would be my most comfortable and natural way of expressing myself. The one dilemma I had was what to sing. Doing this project reminded me that what helped me decide, three years back, was the final recognition that I want to express things that are most important to me or things I want to learn to put in the center of my life, Israel being one of them. I chose the song"אין לי ארץ אחרת" and grew much attached to it.
Singing the song, and then for years later having it stuck in my head, made me feel that we could each find our own way of expressing our love toward Israel.
This song expresses such passion towards our country, beyond any logic, that I hope we all get to experience.
Hope you enjoy.
REFLECTION:
Writing this project was very acknowledging and enriching. I learned much about my father, about his job and its importance, and learned about the Jewish-Argentinean community. But most of all I learned about myself and how I feel towards my being Israeli. This project, especially the literary and creative connections, made me feel strongly how I am directly attached to Israel, how different she is to any other country, and how meaningful Israel is to me, to all Jews and to the world.
Israel is a country that was given to us, and then chosen by us again many years later, for better reasons than its location, climate or beautiful views. Israel is a country we would fight, guard, and sacrifice our life for. Its importance is beyond what we know and what we feel while living our everyday lives. Not only am I a descendent of great people who dreamed to be living here, not only am I daughter of a man who devotes so much of his life and time for Israel and the awareness regarding her importance and reputation, but I am a proud Israeli, I speak Hebrew as my mother tongue, and I have been privileged to live my entire life in the holy land of our fathers. I wish we all get to feel this way towards our country at all times, and that our children and great grandchildren will continue fulfilling our fathers dreams and raising our country to be as strong and holy as possible.
Bibliography: · "Jewish community", Judaica Encyclopedia · Perednik, Gustavo, Lecturer and educator in Jewish philosophy. Personal interview. Efrat, 3/05/10. · Perednik, Ruth, psychologist. Personal interview. Efrat, 26/04/10
Table of Contents
My rationale:
I chose my father, Gustavo Perednik, as the subject of my project. I believe that by his coming to Israel and contributing in an important and essential matter such as teaching and educating how to present our country in troubled times as today, he is playing his part (and more) as an appreciative, Broad-hearted, smart and giving citizen. Thanks to him and his job, many Jews around the world are proud of their identity and know how to live with it, spread it, and present it to the word. Some of his students became religious and made aliya, which is an important aspect to be in touch with, too. I believe we have a lot to learn from my fathers' important projects and the devotion and hard work he puts into them.I hope you learn from this project as much as I did.
Enjoy, Hadar Perednik.
Profile:
Gustavo Perednik was born in Argentina in 1956, the only son of a middle- class Jewish family that had emigrated from Russia one generation before.
His parents belonged to the Jewish club “Hako’ach” where Gustavo went every Sunday to play with friends and to basketball games or rowing.
During the week he attended an English elementary school (called “Buenos Aires English High School” –although it was only elementary) and afterwards a high school that belonged to the University of Buenos Aires, called “Carlos Pellegrini.” He was an excellent student in both of them, and had many friends, some of which are still in contact with him.
His mother tongue was Spanish, the language of Argentina, but he was used to hearing Yiddish spoken by his grandmothers and their friends (both his grandfathers had passed away long before Gustavo was born.)
At home, Israel was always cherished and admired. He thought of making aliya, since his boyhood. Gustavo’s relatives in Israel were the siblings of his maternal grandmother and their children; almost all of them lived in Ramat Ha’Sharon. When he visited Israel for the first time in 1974, he paid a visit to them, but afterwards the contact between them lessened.
He had visited Israel many times after that, and in 1982 he was selected to study in The Jerusalem Fellows program for Jewish educators, which was launched that year and gave him a full scholarship. During that program, in 1984, he met Ruth Kestenbaum through a common friend, and they married in 1985.
They lived in Argentina for five years, since Gustavo’s program obliged him to return to his community as an educator. In Buenos Aires, Ruth and Gustavo’s first three children were born.
Once the Perednik family came back to Israel in 1990, they lived for several years in Jerusalem until in the year 1999 they decided to buy a house in Efrat. They had visited the place some years before when they were invited by the Ben Ami family, but for a while, the decision to move to Efrat was put on hold, because the road to get there was difficult.
The Hebrew University offered him the job of Director of the Four-Year Preparatory Program (Mechinah) and two years later he was offered to head the Machon Le’Madrichei Chul at Kiryat Moriyah, Jerusalem. While he was the head of the Machon, he continued lecturing at the Hebrew University for several years.
Gustavo always felt more at home in Israel than in any other country, including his native Argentina, although he likes visiting there when he travels to lecture.
He is a lecturer in many universities and Jewish communities abroad, therefore his job requires a lot of traveling. He works mainly with Jewish communities and organizations and meets many interesting people during his trips. By now, He must have given about 2,000 lectures about Israel and about the Jewish contribution to civilization, in one hundred towns of fifty countries.
He organizes many activities abroad; therefore his job requires a lot of creativity, including writing books on Jewish topics, which he enjoys very much.
Gustavo’s job demands a lot of thought, keeping updated about the Jewish world, reading a lot, and good organizational skills. Above all, it demands being a good educator who loves communicating with his students. Talking to Gustavo, I realized how essential his job is to our country. Gustavo gives so much time, effort and thought into how to present Israel to the world and how to improve the relationships between the two. Not once has he, through his job, proven an anti-Semitic wrong. For example, once, being interviewed on Argentinean radio, the interviewer asked him what rights Israel has to exist. Gustavo, calmly and precisely made her realize how none of the other 191 countries in the world had to prove their rights to exist, and how Israel is the only country in the world you can actually say for a fact that having been founded one hundred years earlier would have saved millions of Jews. This job isn't important only in the international aspect. Jews themselves can learn about their own history, the importance and greatness of their country, and their rights to be accepted by the world and accept themselves. Though the world sometimes deceives us, Israel is a strong and up standing country that has an influence and a place in the world, as much as any other country does and sometimes evens more. I believe that Gustavo's doing can help us and the world, see and understand that.
He feels his job is important for the Jews since he teaches about how to present the case of Israel in many frameworks. He is quite known in many Jewish communities and that makes his job easier.
Gustavo’s frequent trips don’t make his family life easier, but he tries to compensate his absence when with the time he spends with his wife and his children while he's in Israel.
He intends to be more in Israel in the years to come, since he has several books that could be finished while he is at home.
Gustavo hopes that the years to come will bring him the same happiness he has enjoyed so far, both with his family and with his professional activities.
Background research
The Jewish community in Argentina:Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, the largest numbers are in Buenos Aires alone, the city in which my father lived. Despite its size, the community is shrinking, due partly to the emigration of its younger population to other countries and to Israel in light of the economic crisis facing the country. Most Jews here are Ashkenazi and a smaller percentage, Sephardic. Throughout different periods in history, Argentina's Jews have enjoyed peaceful co-existence, but have also had turns facing fierce anti-semitism.
The Jewish community is active in all aspects of society - politics, religion, education, arts, media, film and music - and many of its members are prominent figures in these fields. There are dozens of educational institutions, social groups and sports clubs within the community. Most synagogues are traditional, with orthodox synagogues outnumbering conservative and reform ones.
In Buenos Aires, the heart of Jewish life can be found in "Once" (Onsay), site of one of its more prominent synagogues. "Once" is also home to Argentina's oldest synagogue. Another source of pride for the community is its Jewish cultural center, which features concerts, lectures and a high school.
As in other countries around the world, the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) train young community leaders to operate local organizations and manage the upkeep of the community at large. These agencies also provide aid to local business owners and synagogues when necessary. Other organizations within the community include AMIA, the Argentinean Kehila, DAIA, the representative political umbrella organization for the local Jewish community and the Vaad Hakehilot, Argentina's federation of small Jewish communities.
In comparison to all this information, My father lived in a very Jewish though not at all religious community, in which he could learn and be proud of his being a Jew, but not much further. He lived in a very open community where not all where Jews, and likewise was his school.
From here we can see how the Jewish community is developing and evolving, and not the same at all places.
Literary connection
As subject of my literary connection I chose a song written by Ehud Manor after the death of his younger brother during a war over Israel.
אין לי ארץ אחרת
גם אם אדמתי בוערת
רק מילה בעברית חודרת
אל עורקי אל נשמתי
בגוף כואב
בלב רעב
כאן הוא ביתי.
לא אשתוק כי ארצי
שינתה את פניה
לא אוותר לה אזכיר לה
ואשיר כאן באוזניה
עד שתפקח את עיניה.
there is no other country for me
even if my land is burning
only a word in hebrew penetraites
into my vains, into my soul.
with a hurting body
and a hungry heart
this is my home.
I won't be silent because my country
has changed it's face.
I won't give up on her, I will remind her
and sing into her ear
untill she opens her eyes.
This song speaks of Israel as of a sacred and life-giving worthy place. He mentions that only to a word spoken in Hebrew he can relate, and how even in hunger or heartache this is his home.
To the writer, Israel is valuable beyond just a country to live in or a place to grow up in. Israel is a value, a goal, a belief. Ehud Manor wrote this song after losing his brother for the country's safety. I felt the song was written with an aching, but whole heart.
I chose this song for a few reasons. Firstly, because of my personal connection to the song, that comes to expression in a disc I prepared for my Batmitzva in which I sang that song. Secondly, because I find it beautiful and inspiring to hear someone who's lost so much for the country, speak of Israel with such love and praise. My third reason for choosing this song is because I see it's direct connection to the subject of my project, my father. Gustavo gives so much of himself for Israel, for the Jews and for the progress of Israel's presentation in the world. Thank god, my father didn't have to lose a soul to see the importance of Israel, but he did put himself through a complete life change so he could live in Israel, and decided from then to devote his life for the country.
Creative connection
It took a while for me to decide that as my creative connection I will present my personal song.
Finally, I decided that presenting the song I recorded for my batmitzva would be appropriate and suitable due to the fact that I wrote my literary connection about that same song.
For my batmitzva I knew I wanted to record songs, because that would be my most comfortable and natural way of expressing myself. The one dilemma I had was what to sing. Doing this project reminded me that what helped me decide, three years back, was the final recognition that I want to express things that are most important to me or things I want to learn to put in the center of my life, Israel being one of them. I chose the song"אין לי ארץ אחרת" and grew much attached to it.
Singing the song, and then for years later having it stuck in my head, made me feel that we could each find our own way of expressing our love toward Israel.
This song expresses such passion towards our country, beyond any logic, that I hope we all get to experience.
Hope you enjoy.
REFLECTION:
Writing this project was very acknowledging and enriching. I learned much about my father, about his job and its importance, and learned about the Jewish-Argentinean community. But most of all I learned about myself and how I feel towards my being Israeli. This project, especially the literary and creative connections, made me feel strongly how I am directly attached to Israel, how different she is to any other country, and how meaningful Israel is to me, to all Jews and to the world.
Israel is a country that was given to us, and then chosen by us again many years later, for better reasons than its location, climate or beautiful views. Israel is a country we would fight, guard, and sacrifice our life for. Its importance is beyond what we know and what we feel while living our everyday lives. Not only am I a descendent of great people who dreamed to be living here, not only am I daughter of a man who devotes so much of his life and time for Israel and the awareness regarding her importance and reputation, but I am a proud Israeli, I speak Hebrew as my mother tongue, and I have been privileged to live my entire life in the holy land of our fathers. I wish we all get to feel this way towards our country at all times, and that our children and great grandchildren will continue fulfilling our fathers dreams and raising our country to be as strong and holy as possible.
Bibliography:
· "Jewish community", Judaica Encyclopedia
· Perednik, Gustavo, Lecturer and educator in Jewish philosophy. Personal interview. Efrat, 3/05/10.
· Perednik, Ruth, psychologist. Personal interview. Efrat, 26/04/10